Lalu Prasad attempted to save Godhra case accused: PM Modi claims

Darbhanga: Invoking the Godhra train burning, probably the first time in the current election campaigns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that RJD president Lalu Yadav shielded those guilty and put the blame on kar sevaks, PTI reported.

Modi was addressing an election rally in Darbhanga, Modi said that Yadav acted in connivance with the Congress, which was in power at the Centre during the incident.

"He had tried to shield those who were responsible for the Godhra train burning incident in which more than 60 kar sevaks were burnt alive. Was it not the reign of Sonia (Gandhi), madam"? Modi claimed.

He further claimed that the Banerjee Commission, headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court, was under pressure from Yadav and submitted a bogus report that "tried to exonerate those who were guilty and put the blame on kar sevaks themselves".

"But the court consigned the report to the dustbin. Those who were guilty got punished, some of them even getting death sentences," the Prime Minister, who was the chief minister of Gujarat during the incident, said.

PM Modi alleged that all constituents of the opposition bloc INDIA had a propensity towards appeasing the Muslim community. "Their tendency for appeasement makes them behave in this fashion. Earlier, they had insulted the armed forces by raising questions on surgical strikes. We never think in terms of Hindus and Muslims while talking about our armed forces and our martyrs," the prime minister said.

This comment was a reaction to Lalu Prasad's son Tejashwi Yadav's earlier statement that all three armed forces were headed by Hindus. Tejashwi Yadav had slammed the ruling BJP at the Centre for repeatedly claiming that the faith of the majority community was "in danger".